What are the potential drawbacks of hiding URLs in PHP websites?

Hiding URLs in PHP websites can make it difficult for users to bookmark or share specific pages, as well as hinder search engine optimization efforts. It can also make it harder for users to navigate the website, as they may not be able to see the structure of the site from the URLs. To solve this issue, you can use URL rewriting techniques to create user-friendly URLs that are still hidden from direct access. This can be done using mod_rewrite in Apache or similar techniques in other web servers.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)$ /index.php?page=$1 [L]